About these proceedings

Introduction

CO«i»b.H BaCHJIbeBHa lU>BaJIeBcR8JI (Sonja Kovalevsky) was born in Moscow in 1850 and died in Stockholm in 1891. Between these years, in the then changing and turbulent circumstances for Europe, lies the all too brief life of this remarkable woman. This life was lived out within the great European centers of power and learning in Russia, France, Germany, Switzerland, England and Sweden. To this day, now 150 years after her birth, her influence for and contribution to mathe­ matics, science, literature, women's rights and democratic government are recorded and reviewed, not only in Europe but now in countries far removed in time and distance from the lands of her birth and being. This volume, dedicated to her memory and to her achievements, records the Proceedings of the Marcus Wallenberg Symposium held, in memory of Sonja Kovalevsky, at Stockholm University from 18 to 22 June 2000. The symposium was held at the Department of Mathematics with its excellent library and lecture halls providing favourable working conditions. Within these pages are contained a curriculum vitae for Sonja Kovalevsky, a list of all her scientific publications, together with a copy of the moving and elegant obituary notice written by her friend and protector Gosta Mittag-Leffler. These papers are followed by a leading article entitled Sonja Kovalevsky: Her life and professorship in Stockholm, written especially for this volume by Jan-Erik Bjork in preparation for his major address to the Symposium.